On the surface, it sure looks like DeSoto school trustees are collectively making fools of themselves, turning the suburban district into a regional laughingstock.

At a critical meeting at which the community figured the board would finally embrace or part ways with its freshly hired superintendent, trustees left everyone in a lurch.

For whatever reasons, only four of seven bothered to show up for the regularly scheduled meeting, which, predictably, was anything except routine.

Still, nothing got done to put an end to this unpleasant saga.

That means Superintendent Kathy Augustine, who was placed on leave July 11, the first day she reported to work, will cling to her job a little longer.

But make no mistake. This marriage is over.

Augustine knows it. Trustees know it.

And, for better or worse, the community knows it.

All that’s left now is for the board and its attorneys to figure out an exit strategy that will cost taxpayers the least amount of money and perhaps help Augustine save face.

No one wants a drawn-out political battle. No one wants a costly legal fight.

That’s why the district’s attorneys are driving the discussions and trustees are guarded in what they do and say.

“The board continues to work out the issues related to Dr. Augustine,” school board President Warren C. Seay Jr. said in a statement released shortly after Monday night’s meeting. “We anticipate a swift resolution within a matter of weeks.”

Did he say weeks?

There’s no way the board should allow this divisive distraction to drag on that long.

While Seay couldn’tcomment specifically on something I’m hearing, which is that trustees hope to strike a deal with Augustine within two weeks — sooner, hopefully — he acknowledged that the drama is beginning to wear on him.

Indeed, if there’s a single bright spot in all of this, it’s Seay, the SMU law student who became president of the board in May, just two years after becoming the youngest elected official in Dallas County history.

Seay, 22, emerged as president a month after Augustine was named the lone finalist for the DeSoto job. But before she could take the reins, an investigation found widespread cheating in the Atlanta school system, where Augustine served as the district’s second-in-command

Numerous Atlanta school officials have since resigned. But Augustine has denied any involvement in the cheating, although the investigation concluded that she either knew about it or should have.

Augustine’s failure to accept any ownership of the cheating scandal has to give you pause, no matter how impressive her resume.

Now, DeSoto trustees find themselves in a position that is sticky legally and politically. The community is torn over Augustine’s hiring, and the board doesn’t want to spend a lot of money to get rid of her.

Seay is sitting atop the heap. “This is a hell of a welcome mat,” he quipped Tuesday.

More than that, his handling of the Augustine fiasco is a test of his political mettle, a chance for folks to see that the up-and-comer has arrived.